Bonsai Exhibition

The origins of the bonsai collection in the Jardí Botànic de Barcelona (Barcelona Botanical Garden) are to be found in the legacy that the Pere Duran i Farell family left to the Garden. An engineer, businessman and driving force behind the Garden, Pere Duran i Farell was also a renowned teacher in the world of bonsai. From the 1980s, when he became interested in this art, until his death in 1999, he developed and brought together a remarkable collection of around 108 Mediterranean bonsai species, 80 of them in the Garden Collection.

Since then, Barcelona Botanical Garden has conserved and expanded this collection through acquisitions, other donations and recuperation to the point where it currently contains 342 exemplars. The display area in the Garden nurseries shows 36 of these plants, changed regularly according to the season and the needs of each plant. Some trees are exhibited alongside other plants that complement and enhance their beauty of the tree, imitating traditional setting designs used in Japan.

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The collection is regularly visited by a Japanese bonsai master who gives technical advice, lays down guidelines and provides the finishing touch to the shaping of the trees. For the Barcelona Botanical Garden pursues the goal of making this bonsai collection an international reference collection of Mediterranean species.